So I was thinking to myself one day, what skills should I really have before I make travel a full time deal after I graduate? What advice would I give someone and what would advice would I want given to me?

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I am the be all, end all authority when it comes to traveling. I am not. I am SOOO far from that.

There is no right or wrong way to travel (unless you spend more money than you feel comfortable, when you could have easily saved it instead.) Everyone has different opinions on traveling and how they want to do it and that's fine.

Transit Deciphering

My husband is the one who is really good at figuring out foreign transit systems. It looks like fucking hieroglyphs to me, but he has been able to navigate us around several cities when I couldn't even figure out what part of the city we were in on a map.

It's really important to be able to navigate foreign mass transit, because that's how most of the world does it outside of the good ol' USA. Google can only help you so much. Before we left to go anywhere, we always made sure to at least look at a transit map, get our bearings and then go. Figuring it out along the way might work for some people, but I personally find that to be stressful and inefficient.

Save some basic maps of the area in your phone before you leave. Like go to Google maps, find some decent views, and then just do a screen shot. You might not have reliable data access and as long as your phone has power it beats pulling out a paper map and looking like a tourist.

Money

You will never remember how much that cool thing you want to do cost, but you will always remember the cool thing. Travel is about experiences. You can buy them but it's not the cost that you'll remember.

Take twice the amount of money and only pack half of what you need. As a girl, I have a serial disposition to over packing. I need to stop. Like, really, but my brain attempts to justify it as preparing for "maybe" events.

This is a dirty trick. Don't fall for it.

Scams

Oh man. There are so many scams out there, guys.

You're not going to be familiar with all of them but keeping a level head and a watchful eye out will be your biggest asset. A big one is the use of child beggars.

It's a very common one is Paris, unfortunately. I witnessed it mostly on the metro. They usually don't say a word and try to hand you a piece of paper claiming they are collecting money for charity.

WATCH YOUR BAGS AND DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING. DON'T TAKE THE PAPER, EITHER.

All you are doing is perpetuating child abuse and thievery. I really wish I could help all the kids of the world, but this is not the place to do it.

If you relent once, they will swarm you.

There are so many that I can't count them all. I check reddit.com/r/travel frequently as people post new ones quite frequently. Just being aware of or doing a quick Google search for scams in the area you will be traveling to is immensely helpful.

Packing

The only piece of advice that I am 100% comfortable enforcing and or insisting upon is that you do not check a bag when going overseas.

Maybe 9/10 it will be fine, and that's great

or

Your flight will get delayed in Paris, and when you get to your destination the next day, they have no idea where your bag is. All they now have to go on is your name and a description of the bag. Maybe you'll get it back. Maybe.

We checked a bag once and will never do it again. We now travel exclusively with everything we need packed into backpacks for easy mobility. They aren't even the big cumbersome backpacker back packs that weigh like 30 pounds. They're just regular ruck sack looking canvas bags. I can fit 2 weeks worth of military rolled clothes and all of my electronics if necessary.

If you ignore me and do it anyway,and if you're traveling through countries where you don't speak the language, take pictures of your bags before you go. That way if they get lost, you can show the picture to the airline / train attendant rather than trying to remember the local words for "burnt orange with purple highlights duffel bag".

Food

Unless it is truly first world or drink bottled water, don't eat food unless it is thoroughly cooked.

Which means no ice or no salad (they wash veggies with the water). I've gotten travelers sickness once in London and it was absolutely horrendous. I was sick for over a month and recovery took a few more months.

Summary

My best advice is don't over prepare, don't know too much, don't obsess over the details and itineraries and schedules. Just go and experience it.

A big part of the benefit of traveling is having to think on your feet, readjust, adapt, and forge new paths. If you already have the entire trip planned out and everything goes as expected, does that really seem like a life-changing experience?